VADODARA - Parsi couples in the country, giving birth to second or third child, will soon get a monthly allowance. The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), the apex administrative body of the Parsi Irani Zoroastrian community in the country, has decided to provide financial assistance for those couples giving birth to more children in the wake of alarming fall in their population. At a congregation of the community held in Gujarat recently, it was decided that every Parsi couple giving birth to the second child would get Rs 3,000 per month till the child attains the age of 18 years, while the couple giving birth to a third child will get Rs 5,000 per month, BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta said.

“The congregation was attended by about 3,000 Parsis from various parts of the country and abroad. We discussed the issue of survival of Zoroastrian community in changing times,” Mehta said. The congregation is held every year on ‘Sanjan Day’ which marks arrival of the Parsis in India at Sanjan 1,297 years ago. “Every year there is a decrease of 10 to 15 per cent in Parsi population. The number will fall to 36,000 by 2050 if no serious efforts are made to check the trend,” he said. (PTI)